Tainted
by Youjustdontgettit
Summary: Zoey flees the Tulsa House of Night after her horrific encounters with Neferet, but although everything has gone wrong for her in Tulsa, theres something waiting for her in Chicago...set after Chosen instead of Untamed
1. Prologue

**_Tainted_**

**_PROLOGUE:_**

I know it sounds foolish, but things started to go wrong after my affair with Loren; I mean

besides Erik finding out and dumping me. I'd discovered the world wasn't the same. I'd seen

it with naive eyes, and if I thought that having to deal with the dark daughters was stressful,

I should have noticed it coming: the darkness. It was heading for me, and I now know that it

won't stop until it has it's prize.


	2. Chapter 1

**_Chapter 1:_**  
><strong><em>Stark<em>**

"Hey, I know I'm hot and all, but would you stop following me around? I'm taken, so go

annoy someone else." The blonde bitch paused to snigger at her own nasty joke before

continuing, "though preferably not Zoey, because I'll presume she's too busy to have to deal

with your sad, skanky issues. Plus, even if she were free I'd think she'd spend her time with

someone who she actually gives a shit about, rather than just being too polite to ask to go

away." A dark smirk toyed with her lips, as she watched her each syllable slowly plant intself

in to my mind.

I stalked closer to her, enjoying her acknowledgement of potential danger reflect in her

eyes. "I'd suggest that you should stay out of Z's head like you want to imagine you are."

A small hint of terror passed across her face before vanishing into the sea of sarcasm and

ignorance. But before I could laugh at my short lived victory, her hard fists slammed into my

chest with such force I was sent reeling. Her forhead then smacked into my lip, creating a

large pattern of blood across the pavement. "Think you're a bad boy? You haven't seen

anything yet, hun."

Something she had said made me want to shudder in horror (and it wasn't just getting

beaten up by a tiny blonde). She was speaking the truth and I knew it.

Zoey

"...this isn't working out, Loren. We both know that." I stared at the ground, unable to look

him in the eye.

"What? So you're just going to ditch me like you did with the others?" His voice was full of

authority, I could sense he was trying to command me to apoligise then get into bed with

him like a good girlfriend would have. That time I looked up. "Don't you dare talk to me like

that!" My voice was calm, but I wanted to burn him up like I did with a couple of Stevie-Rae's

charming new friends. Loren's face was slowly changing colour.

"I thought what we had was special, Zoey!"

As I laughed at his words, I felt the elements reply to my overflowing emotions.

"You're a good liar, Loren. In fact, the only givaways were the fact that A) I caught you

cheating on me and freely admitting that I was being used, and B) you keep hooking up with

Neferet."

His cute brown eyes widened as he stumbled back in shock, "wh-"

I sighed and snapped, "it doesn't matter. I don't know why it took so long to finally stand

up for myself. Anyway, I came to tell you that I'm leaving this House of Night. Things are too

complicated; I have a feeling this place is gonna' kill me."

It was the truth. All I was thankful for was that my soul hadn't died with my self-respect.


	3. Chapter 2

**_Chapter 2-_**  
><strong><em>Zoey<em>**

I shook my curtain of long, dark hair in front of my face to hide the silent tears that slowly

slid across my cheeks;I walked quickly, knowing that there was going to be some snot pretty

soon. It didn't really matter anymore though, nobody would notice, hell I was a nobody.

I should have realised that nobody would care whether Neferet reclaimed my title as high

preistess in training. I only had two friends left, Stevie-Rae (who, by the way, is still an evil,

bloodsucking zombie-thing) and Aphrodite (who's description is very much the same as

Stevie-Rae's). I bit my lip to hold in the tears that threatened to burst my charade. My

friends didn't want me; I was alone.

"Hey, are you okay?" Aphrodite's big blue eyes widened when she saw my bloodshot eyes

and sucked in a sharp gasp of fear.

"Jeez, you scared the shit out of me!" I said, trying to calm my breathing as well as trying

not to look like a total retard.

Aphrodite raised a single well-plucked eyebrow, "bad day? You cussed." After snickering

slightly, she tossed head and lowered her voice. "That Stark guy was looking for you again,

look I don't think I can cover for you anymore."

"Why is he looking for me? Why does everyone want to bother me, I just want to be left

alone!" I snapped, trying to hold back the hysterical wails that threatened to unleash

themselves on both me and the school.

Aphrodite snorted and rolled her eyes, "you really need a holiday Z. Its starting to show."

I gave a wry laugh at her, "no shit. Its a such a shame that I'd reject the change if I left my

safe haven of adult vampires to shivel up in Portugal for the summer."

Ahrodite shook her head and looked around before lowering her voice, "look Z, I've been

thinking..."

Her tone was starting to hint an unwravelling plan. I often didn't like her plans due to her

last ones being plots to bring me down from my element quietly and painfully. "Be careful

Ahrodite, that's a risky movement you're plotting."

"Zoey," she hissed her eyes narrowing at me, "shut the fuck up and listen to me. This is

serious."

I sighed, "okay okay, don't wet your panties, what is it?"

She paused, "there's a few places open in the Chicago House of Night. I think we should

transfer."

**_AN:- sorry I hav'nt published in ages, i know it's just the second chapter, but i have some big plans for this one._**

**_xx _**

**_youjustdontgettit_**


	4. Chapter 3

**_Chapter 3-_**  
><strong><em>Zoey<em>**

I sucked in a shocked burst of air, "are you crazy? You know I can't leave Stevie-Rae!" A

couple of kids looked round at me like I was insane. I didn't blame them. I was stupid enough

to hang out with Aphrodite and I was shouting about my dead me friend. I didn't feel

particularly sane, either.

She looked at me, her lip curled, "why not? It's not like its going to kill her if you leave. Can

the undead even die?"

"Stevie-Rae is not _the undead_! She's a person that has died and then come back to life..."

"Without a soul." Aphrodite sneered.

"Yes, without a soul-wait, no! And don't you dare say that to her face! She just needs to believe

in herself if she wants to get better."

Aphrodite snorted, " I think she needs a lot more than self-belief, Zoey."

"I'm not saying that that's all she needs to get better, but its a start and you're really not

helping her!"

She pouted at me, offended by my comment, "who said I was trying to?"

After all the time and patience I had put into trying not to brutally murder Aphrodite, I

snapped, "Nyx fucking says so! She is giving you the option to try and reform or whatever

and you're practically crapping on it!" I cried waving my hands out like a crazy person, I think

I was starting to develop anger management issues. I calmed down, "again." I muttered

before looking for her reaction.

She was staring at me, her heavily made-up blue eyes wide. "Oh. My. Goddess. You are

actually going insane. See, this is why we should go to Chicago. No one will know about your

secret mental problems and it will be awesome. We can take your zombified BFF with us. We

can try presenting her with some retail therapy."

I frowned, "yeah because I'm confident that the Gucci employees won't run screaming for

their lives when she walks in."

"Yeah, when they see her choice of clothing," Aphrodite muttered, rolling her eyes at the

image in both of our minds.

I sighed and looked her in the eye. "Aphrodite, we can't all just hop along to a different

state just because you want to have a better chsnce at being high priestess in training again!

This is-"

Aphrodite cut me off, "wait, you think this is about _me_?" She shook her head, as if trying to

figure me out. "Zoey, I'm trying to help you! Something is coming Z, and its not gonna' be

good Neferet is playing with stuff that neither of us understand and soon she's going to have

so much win her possession, that we're not going to be able to protect ourselves against her.

I think she's plannig something, I-I had a vision and I think whatever she's going to do isn't

going to help the people standing against her."

She'd had a vision? Why hadn't she told me earlier? My mind starting reeling, but all I could

say was, "so what's your plan?"

She gave me a solemn look, "I suggest we run."


	5. Chapter 4

**_Chapter 4-_**  
><strong><em>Zoey<em>**

I layed on my soft,clean comforter and stared at the ceiling. My life was so messed up. I'd

made myself into something I'd hated my step-loser for: hypocrisy. I'd cheated on my

perfect boyfriend, Erik after I'd met up with Heath, my ex-almost boyfriend from when I was

human and ho-ishly lapped up his blood in the front of my vintage bug. Then after I'd cried

my eyes out and admitted the whole thing to him and then begged him not to dump me. He

didn't, and Heath was so desperate to keep me that he was willing to share me with

someone he hated despite how dangerous it might for him. Then my best friend and

roommate, Stevie Rae had come back to life-along with a whole group of dead students

from the Tulsa House of Night, but I wasn't really concentrating on them, because it looked

like dying and all had sent them completely insane and, well, zombified, due to the fact that

they had kidnapped and were slowly draining him of his now I was trying to repair

Stevie-Rae's humanity, despite the amount of times she'd tried to convince me I was wasting

my time.

I sighed. Okay, so maybe the whole Heath thing wasn't my fault completely, and nor was

the fact that I had to keep the Stevie-Rae thing a secret because the reason she was 'alive'

was due to our High Priestess going comepletely evil and was using her goddess-given

powers for the forces of darkness- yes I know, its a totally lame reference, but if you saw

her, you'd think the same. So maybe those things weren't really my fault, as my attraction to

human blood is pretty much unstoppable and amongst Neferet's goddess-given powers were

telepathy, so if I told anyone except Aphrodite-who is amongst one of the only kids in the

Tulsa HoN who was resistant to it- I would be putting them in some serious danger. But then

I had to go and have a kinky affair with Loren Blake, who is my poetry professor and who's

age I'm still unsure of.

Anyway, Erik caught us having sex and I managed to break my imprint with Heath, who I'm

pretty sure I heard scream, despite the fact that he lives on the other side of town. Erik

called me a slut and dumped me after I notified him that me and Loren were in love. Erik

laughed at the concept, called me a few more names and then ran off to go cry alone in his

room. Well, I guess that's what happened, he didn't really tell me the details. Obviously.

Then, after I'd witnessed Loren heavily making out with Neferet and laughing about how

gullible I was, I figured Neferet had planned for me to fall for Loren and for Erik to see us

'being in love'. And then for my friends to find out about our 'relationship' and then about

how I'd decided not to tell them about the little detail that happened to involve their best

friend Stevie-Rae not a tually being dead. They didn't take it well and now I'm alone. Just as

Neferet wanted.

A tear rolled down my cheek. I didn't do alone well. I was used to feeling unwanted, sure,

but actually having no-one to turn to was so much worse. No matter how deppressed I got,

I'd never actually considered killing myself. And now, at a time where I had some

responsibility, the thought of ending it all was just so tempting. I turned so my whole body

was facing the door, and though my night vision was effective as ever, every detail of the

room around me seemed so so dark. And despite the lack of goosebumps along my olive

toned skin, I felt like I was going to die of hypothermia. It was nearly dawn, and I didn't even

know why I was in bed, I felt so awake. Well, as awake as a girl who felt so unimaginably

numb could feel. Why was I here? My life was ruined by an insane woman who ran our

school, and my mom and step-loser had rejected me for simply being who I was. I had

nothing to hold me here.

_I'm so sorry Nyx. I know you want me to be here for some reason, but I'm scared and for_

_once, I need to have a home. I hope you'll still love me, but I don't think I'm the right chosen_

_one,_ I apologized silently to Nyx and got my mobile out. _Aphrodite get everything ready, im packing my bags. _I texted and began to pack my bags with, for the first

time in months, a smile on my face.


	6. Chapter 5

_**chapter 5**_  
><em><strong>zoey<strong>_

For a seventeen year-old girl who had already left home, it was surprising to see that I didn't  
>have many belongings at all. I guess it was a good thing in this situation, because I also had<br>needed to pack the various belongings of Stevie-Rae that I had stolen from the morgue or  
>whatever that place where they stored all the dead people's stuff was called. Thank god<br>Aphrodite had half of Stevie-Rae's stuff too, because I think the girl had twice the amount of  
>belongings that I had, despite the fact that she was dead. Aphrodite probably had a few<br>hundred majorly expensive travel bags and if not she could just order some, since her mom  
>and dad were damn millionaires.<p>

I didn't even know how Aphrodite had managed to get hold of a private jet, but somehow she had.

One of the perks of being the mayor's only daughter was my guess. It was the middle of the day, but

I still couldn't sleep, the sound of the whirring engines was engraving itself into

my weak mind and my head hurt more since I got on this plane than it had since I'd first stepped  
>onto the ground of the Tulsa House of night. I tried not to take this as a sign.<p>

For such a simple plan, it was a pretty big struggle and we hadn't even arrived in Chicago yet. There were two main problems blocking our new beginning. Firstly, persuading Stevie-Rae to come with us. You'd think she wouldn't be so keen to live somewhere that Aphrodite had so  
>much as touched, but you never do know with some people. Secondly, actually organizing<br>the transfer. Neferet was one of the most powerful high priestesses in modern times and she had a hell of a lot of contacts, the Chicago High priestess being one of them. If she wanted to trap me here, she wouldn't have anything standing in her way.

It had been up to me to sort out the Neferet stuff. Aphrodite would never admit to it, but  
>our High Priestess scared the crap outta her. To be honest, I really did not blame her. But<br>when I told her her Neferet had just threw me one of her infamous 50 watt grins, pulled out  
>some very official-looking papers and told me what a shame it was that I would be leaving. It was all so sincere that if I hadn't seen the things that she had done, the wounds that she had inflicted (both physically as well as spiritually),I would have believed her.<p>

In hindsight, I should probably have noted the fact that Neferet actually seemed mildly  
>happy that I was leaving. I should have known that Neferet would not be concerned with<br>petty dislike, I was part of her plan and we both knew it deep down. Looking back, she was  
>probably laughing with glee at my leaving. I had given up, let myself lose this war in her opinion, but war is imminent, endless and not slowed by mere distance.<p>

I heard Stevie-Rae growl softly in her slumber. The speaker announced, in a very loud and not at all pleasant tone, "this plane will soon be landing in Chicago." I tried as hard as I could to ignore the thunderous flutter of my heart that droned on...whispering my deepest doubts and fears about this supposed new beginning.

_**hi guys I'll be posting again soon, please can you review just to let me know what you thought of it. Don't be afraid to be critical but my work is a bit rough atm because I need to get back into it and I really am rushed at the moment.**_


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